D3 Necromancer Fresh Level 70 Season 20 | 2.6.8

Done leveling your Necro to its Fresh Level 70? You wonderin’ what to do next? Well… Look no further. You’ve found “it”. Here, you’ll find how to get your free set ASAP and transition smoothly into the endgame.

Important Note: Crafting Reaper’s Wraps ANYTIME (Like, now) is SUCH A HUGE BOOST to resource generation for such little effort. The plans drop from any Torment Malthael.

S18 Season of Triune and YOU

In S18, the seasonal bonus DIRECTLY BENEFITS any character, at any point in their progression – which is great seeing as this is a “Fresh Level 70” guide.

A chance to gain an “occulus ring” of any one of the following: Damage, CDR, or RCR, is a godly bonus. While RCR isn’t so hot, and CDR depends on build – ANYONE CAN BENEFIT FROM DOUBLE DAMAGE!

Luckily, this makes our leveling and progression journey a little easier this time around.

Fresh 70 Necromancer: Getting the Free Set!

Click on the headers below to reveal the instructions you need for each step:

IMPORTANT: Setting up!

Getting your Necromancer to Fresh 70 shouldn’t be so hard. REROLLING YELLOWS ITEMS is legit. Somehow people even forget this is an option! Fixing up your yellow gear gives so much power it’s not even funny.

Necro NEEDS ARMOR, get rid of ALLRES

Necro is an INT class, so having this in all your gear is a must, and it means you also have to ditch ALL RES from your gear and reroll it for ARMOR. INT, Vitality, and Armor are your top 3 stats. Since you have so much free ALLRES, try to remove it from your gear!

Weapon: Craft or get a 2H Scythewith INT and Vit. Socket and/or Life per Hit are good to have in your weapon. Sockets give you the flexibility to put in additional stats by sticking in appropriate gems. Life per Hit should be in at least one of your items.

Belt: Here is one item you can jam a lot of your defensive stacks. A good belt should come with Int, Vit, Armor, and Life%. Be on the look out for this or craft a hundred until you get the perfect belt stat combo.

Bracer & Necklace: with Physical%. These two rolls are extremely important in the bottleneck of this guide – GR20.

Skill%? Hmm… This is hard to recommend because we will change skills in the middle of the process. We use Death Nova to “Get there”, then Bone Spear after. The only common denominator is Corpse Lance – which rolls on chest and shoulders. Optional.

Rings & Amulet: INT and Sockets in preparation for legendary gems. Don’t be afraid to roll “needed stats” on these. While these are usually reserved for DPS in the end-game, these are great places to patch any holes in your build.

Other slots? You’ll be getting free pieces soon enough but please try to get INT, VIT, ARMOR on as many pieces as you can.

Gems: Might as well be aware on what you need:

Helm: It’s between Diamond and Amethyst for CDR (offensive) and Life% (defensive).

Weapon: Emerald for Crit Damage, or Amethyst if desperate for Life per Hit.

A pretty basic build if I’ve ever made one. Just make sure not to over eagerly Devour – make sure you take out fats with Corpse Lance first. If you’re confident with your skills, you can even fit in Skeletons for a generator-less build, replacing Bone Spike.

Chapters 1 and 2 have pretty basic entries… Keep it easy on your part by completing these on Hard Mode. The only time you up the difficulty is when you have to finish a Neph onExpert.

Don’t forget to bring out a pet while you do your runs…. those gold coins will get those crafters to level up fast!

The difficult thing about this phase is not knowing what build or skills to use as a fresh 70 Necro, but thankfully we got some ideas for ya. Getting the free 2 piece is not a challenge.

The most important part about this early chunk is KEEPING IN MIND THE CONTENTS OF THE “Setting up” TAB ABOVE.

Season Journey Chapter 3: Getting the 4 piece

Just a minor build change – to try and get you used to a “Generator free” build. If you feel weird about it, simply replace Skeletons for Bone Spikes – Blood Spikes.

I know that some entries in Chapter 3 have to be completed in Master, but the bounty cahces can still be completed in Hard. Accomplish the other entries that need you to interact with the crafter NPCs (Kadala, Jeweler, and Kanai). Nothing too notable in this tier.

Now, increase difficulty to Master and let’s wrap up this chapter.

Complete a Nephalem Rift

Kill Butcher – Act I, Halls of Agony Level 3

Kill Urzael – Act V, Westmarch Heights

Collect your reward, reroll, equip your new gear and let’s head on over to the next tab!

Season Journey Chapter 4: Getting the 6 piece

The entries here are mixed, but all I can say is at Torment IV, defense and offense will start to be a real issue. It’s slow going here if you got no good items. I highly suggest trying to craft a Reaper’s Wraps (plans from Torment I+ Malthael) as early as now.

Slow and steady wins the race. You won’t be here long if you play your cards right. Be patient, get good value rerolls on your gear. Trash in unacceptable from here on.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: Upgrade a 2h Scythe. You have a very high chance of making your life 20x easier with just this one upgrade. If you get a Maltorius Petrified Spike you win – simply replace Nova with Bone Spear. If you get Shadowhook you win. Even the “losing” options, Bloodtide Blade and Nayr’s, BOTH make life at least 2x easier.

Complete a Torment I Rift: Depending on your gear this can be painful, but it shouldn’t be the end of the world. Hopefully, the Scythe you just got helps you along.

Set Difficulty to Torment IV: Rush over to the bosses! Ignore any enemies on the way!

These entries are TOUGH but, again, just take it slow and I think you can now see just how gimped your build is (or would be) without legendary items. You can make a “Temporary anti-boss build” by utilizing both Land of the Dead + Simulacrum + Devouring Aura supercombo to “one shot” (or two shot…) these bosses.

Kill Zoltun Kulle – Act II, Archives of Zoltun Kulle

Kill Odeg the Keywarden – Act I, Fields of Misery

Kill Sokahr the Keywarden – Act II, Dahlgur Oasis

Kill Xah’Rith the Keywarden – Act III, Stonefort

Kill Nekarat the Keywarden – Act IV, Garden of Hope 2nd Tier

Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

Ready to tackle GR20 solo entry? Check first if it’s unlocked. If not, you have to unlock this by completing a couple of the highest GRs you can do. You even get your legendary gems by doing this! Lucky that Bane of the Powerful is the first to drop. Socket this in one of your accessory asap! It will make GR20 so much easier!

First of all I don’t recommend this raw – It’s no joke. That being said the above build is your best bet if you want to jump right in. It’s doable, but I recognize that it can be difficult if you have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I don’t recommend doing this.

Thankfully, the power of Pestilence is “AT THE CUSP”. If you’re not confident, or you didn’t get a single useful legendary, FOLLOW THESE STEPS:

Do a couple EASY nephs (normal, hard, whatever) and gather Greater Rift Keys. Do AT LEAST 3 GR’s to get 3 Legendary gems. If you’re lucky, the three you get will be good enough to clear this. IIRC The first one is always Powerful. There are a couple legendary gems that would trivialize this. Pain Enhancer, Efficacious Toxin, Wreath of Lightning. Socket these in and go ham.

The above build is for the absolute RAW guys. If you did the above you might want to add a generator in Bone Spikes-Blood Spikes.

To the courageous few: It can be done with only yellows. Always remember the words of the arena… “The brave do not fear the grave”. Good luck. I will not give build advice as, if you attempt it, you know what the hell you’re doing. GL.

Corpse Lance% on Chest and Shoulder is “welcome” but not mandatory. You lose a lot of defensive stats if you roll this on chest so having it on shoulder isn’t that bad. (Chest: INT VIT CL%/Armor) (Shoulder: INV VIT ARMOR CL%).

Element% on Bracer and Amulet: 2 simple rerolls for 30-40% power increase. While the element totally depends on what skill(s) you’re going for, I think Physical% is a good bet.

Belt: makes you fatty. INT VIT ARMOR LIFE% is what you want.

2H Scythe: Rerolling weapons is a guide in and of itself, but this early on, Life per Hit is very very important. INT > LpH > Socket > VIT is good enough for me.

Sockets on Rings and Amulet: you better have this on your jewelries now, especially since you’re slowly building up your legendary gems pile. Don’t forget INT + CRITon it, too! In the early game, you can have rings with very defensive stats since you won’t lack offense for quite a while.

Gems: If you want +Armor, you’d go with Rubiesor Emerald. Diamond on head for CDR, or Amethyston head for Life% if you’re sorely lacking defense. This early on, the defensive choices are probably better.

Ultimately, REROLL OFF USELESS STATS like…

ALLRES– you have too much of it. Go for ARMOR

Life Regen – trash tier stat. Not impactful at all.

CDR and RCR– too much is not needed, especially in unrefined early builds.

ASPD– Is only good in late-game for most builds

Take GREAT STATS such as…

INT & VIT – your core stats. It’s hard to get too much

ARMOR – is SUPER IMPORTANT for your defenses.

Any CRIT STAT – can’t go wrong with these.

Life Per Hit – is very useful early on. Great rolls on temporary items.

Getting the “correct” stats has a much higher impact
vs. getting the “perfect” stats, for now.

Gaining Power!

Now we have to gain as much power, as quickly as possible.

Legendary Gems

This is the easiest way to gain power simply because acquiring them has little to no RNG. Getting 3 of your best gems will increase your power dramatically in a short time span.

Click on the tabs to see what gems you should be using.

Pestilence 6 Fresh 70 - 3 GemsTab title

Get these three to L25 ASAP:

Bane of thePowerfulis a great gem for the early game. The good thing is, it’s the first legendary gem to drop from GRs. Its power maxes out at 25 and will serve you for a long time yet.

YOU MIGHT WANNA USE DOUBLE DEFENSIVE GEMS EARLY ON.

Moratorium is pretty damn good early on, especially since we have a decent amount of self healing with Life from Death and Life per Hit on weapon. If you want to use 2x defensive gems, invest in an Esoteric Alteration early. If you think you’ve outgrown Moratorium with item evolutions – use it for augments!

Collect those legendary gems mentioned above and level them up to at least level 25. This shouldn’t be so hard as you only need GR34 to get one legendary gem to 25!

With 3 of your best gems at L25 – try higher Torment levels. So now the real farming begins, and likely, the defense problems begin, too.

Playing the Build & Adjustments

Now that you have the base “power level” of your 6 set and gems, let’s take some time off to review How to Play the Build. Also, as you progress and get items, your build may have a weak point here and there that you can patch up given the simple skill, rune, and passive changes listed below.

There’s not much to say here. The tryhard engame variants of Pestilence play very differently, but that’s not to be discussed here. It will be a long time coming before the above playstyle will “get old” as long as you’re farming within realistic limits.

The only risk in this build is “mismanagement” of essence. Getting “bricked” is a definite possibility with a no-generator build, and after a few minutes of gameplay you will hopefully understand how to avoid it.

More offense or Essence needed?

Offense is usually categorized in Damage or, indirectly, Resource Gain.

It is VERY DIFFICULT to meaningfully increase offense any further with minor adjustments. I’ll just list down my thoughts and justifications here…

Spreading Malediction is an amazing DPS passive that you should be aware of. It, of course, loses a lot of value if you’re not constantly fighting a clump of guys. Early on is all about farming speed, so this isn’t super useful. However, it’s one of the prime DPS evolutions, so keep it in mind.

Frailty should find its way into the build when tackling harder content, or once your build matures. Luckily the base build isn’t very strict, and you can fit this many ways.

Devour-Devouring Aurais recommended in the base build since it can COMPLETELY REPLACE YOUR GENERATOR as long as you have a constant stream of BODIES. Of course, the harder the content, the less value this is – this is much less of an issue with Pestilence and Land of the Dead.

I can’t, in good faith, recommend much else in terms of the Necro base kit. A lot of the Necromancer toughness options in the fresh / early game are moot. Most of your effective HP and mitigation come from items.

More mobility needed?

Fueled by Death is the best “easy to slot in” mobility change for Necro. Like I mentioned above, especially for Pestilence, ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO PROPERLY FIT THIS IN.

Decrepify-Opportunist is GREAT FOR BOUNTIES, but not much else as I think you lose the bonus when they die. Just curse guys and run!

Items to look for

Now that legendary gems are wrapped up (the easy part…), it’s time for the ENDLESS grind for the perfect items!

Reaper’s Wraps – craft this once you get the plan from Malthael. It just HELPS, man. Get this ASAP – I reminded you earlier, but just in case you forgot… It’s too good at this point in the game.

Blood ShardsDeath's BreathClassics

Using Blood Shards:

Pestilence is already pretty good “bare bones”, heh.
So luckily you don’t need to look for much.

Belts for Dayntee’s Bindingis probably the strongest possible drop for you right now. Simply Cursing enemies gives us a ton of defense? SURE! Brainless with Aura of Frailty. Needs a build adjustment, but thankfully we have an open slot.

Shoulders for Corpsewhisper Pauldrons is a pretty obvious next pick. While you won’t need the extra offense for quite a while, it’s welcome to have. You’re gonna need RoRG for this or stick it in the cube. This single item is a TITANIC DPS INCREASE.

There’s really nothing else we want for our immediate goals. You can safely spend on RINGS after these items. There are many other usable rings. Unity… Krysbin’s… Lornelle’s… Briggs… TLDR; There are many great rings for all types of content.

Lastly, if you got unlucky with shoulders – Corpsewhisper Pauldrons can also be obtained via Death’s Breath gambling. It’s an important piece, but I really don’t think I would waste DB’s trying to fish for it…

The Classics: Good for any type of newer character, and even the most battle-hardened of builds.

Ring of Royal Grandeur – You can get this form Act I bounties. Use it to break your set for a temporary filler item!

Convention of Elements – A generic DPS ring that’s amazing paired with other cooldowns. Most builds can get a kick out of this.

Bridging to the End-game

So you skipped a whole chunk of the powering up phase with the free set. Now what? Like I always say, “Speedfarming first before pushing GR’s”. So, convert what you have NOW to be as speedfarmy as possible, first.

It took me forever to find you guys have a DFans build for a gearless 70 necro. Please update this page with a secondary gearless guide like you have for the other classes for other people to have an easier time. Otherwise your guides have been pretty great so far, more fun builds than icy-veins.

Hi
Thanks alot for the starter build, I used 2 guides before this one to get the pieces I needed, got them after a bit of struggle but this helped a great and awesome deal for starting Grifts. And ofc speedfarming, and not to mention the guides for the set dungeons, you guys are truly awesome!!! Thanks a bunch the Grace of Inasrius set was exactly like stated brainless. The demonhunter one was challenging but still got it thanks to the awesome guides and maps with routes provided!!!

Thank you for the guide, it helped me, and not only to follow the prescribed steps, but to start figuring out some bits for myself. I’m a casual player, my non-seasonal paragon is only 123 or so.

I have two questions.
How high my thorns amount must be for starting out with 4-piece set, striving for 6? I have 12350 now, is that ok to start with and what’s an okay amount to have in the process?

About trag’oul – I got myself a surprisingly nice pieces of free set, I mean, a lot with armor, which is good for trag’oul, one piece has death nova percent… but how should I reroll the secondaries on it? Should I eliminate all the resistances it has? Should I roll for sockets? Thorns? etc.

try upping your thorns (at least while you’re completing the free set) to around 50k minimum. Get them for your secondary stats for now… Sockets for head (to put in yellow gem for more thorns) and weapon for that added armor.

I want to tell the story of how it was for me after all. Didn’t want to reroll for Thorns on my trag’oul pieces having a little experience on which stats will I use/need after the season.

After all, starting from TI-II it wasn’t easy in terms of dmg. I haven’t got a lot of great legendaries to cube/use on char and materials to upgrade rares (and I have an issues with disconnects, so that is really not helping to do challenges). No Reilena’s, no Bloodtide, no Trag’oul’s fang – I had no dmg. I ended up not using much Thorns and not adjusting my build for them, but I had Heart of Iron which raised its number to ~21k I think, which is near to the number you have in the guide, and I couldn’t see how raising it can improve my speed with Golem I used for corpses tanking the mobs a lot. After all, relaying on thorns dmg takes more time (for mobs to hit you) I think, and time is luxury in GR.

I had a lot of armor and previously cubed Aquila cuirass and Lornelle’s sunstone, which gave me the ability to survive anything pretty easy – as you’ve said in your guide, it was really a defense overkill. But I had no dmg = no speed for pushing GRs. Of course, there’s Spreading malediction + frailty, but it wasn’t enough and it’s useless against standalone bosses like rift guardians, which can just ruin GR run in the end because of the time you’ll need to wipe RG in the end. And I had to come up with something else.

So when I found Thunderfury, it was at least something – I cubed it immediately which helped me with packs and speed. I had Lost Time in off-hand, and Devil’s tongue (leg wit no special effect on it but good stats), on which I rerolled AD% to socket and inserted highest emerald which gave me an additional 90-100k dmg which was a real save there.
And after that I found Oculus ring – chance to create an area of power on monster kill which raises dmg by 73% while standing in it. I already had better jewelry, but thankfully I figured out that it works on follower too, so I gave it to Kormack. It was a final stroke to my improvised build 🙂 Imagine what was like playing it 🙂 I doubt that all that jumping would go well without blood rush.

So thank you again, your guide inspired me to go for it and search for resolving seasonal goals with what I had in hands, almost literally 🙂 Got my 6 piece, wings and frame.

I jumped into the season waaaaay late and Rhykker pointed me towards your build guides. I used it along wit a couple others for reference, but once I hit 70 & started amassin’ the starter set, I found your guide the best of the bunch. And while I had crafted Reapers & cubed the RoRG I got, it was the closin’ remarks of the “Necro Fresh 70 Rathma 4 piece GR 20” section that spurred me on to some of the most fun I’ve had in DIII. Period. As Craig once posited, “…but peer pressure is a MF’er.”

Wow, thanks for the very kind words MrXzavy! Helpin’ people out is our goal, after all!

On a side note “completing it raw” has been a point of pride for me and princess. It has been done for every class, and ever set, even when the community at large said it was impossible. Peer pressure is a MF’er indeed!